Back in March I covered the launch of the Roundhill Space & Technology ETF (MARS)at the time making it the fourth space-themed bag on the market, alongside the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX)i Procure Space ETF (UFO)once SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (ROKT).
In the two months since, six more have piled up:
–Tema Space Innovators ETF (NASA)
–Global X Space Tech ETF (ORBX)
–Tuttle Capital Space Industry Income Blast ETF (SPCI)
–Corgi Space & Satellite Communications ETF (DIPR)
–VanEck Space ETF (WARP)
–Defiance Pure Space Daily 2X Strategy ETF (SPCL)
Combined, these ten funds now hold $2.4 billion, helped by $1.4 billion year-to-date and a strong run in space stocks in general.
The three older funds absorbed most of that new money. UFO has pulled in $520 million this year, the most of any ETF in the space. ARKX is third with $312 million, and ROKT is fourth with $111 million. MARS, a fund I launched earlier this spring, has raised $26 million.
But the standout of the group is NASA, which has brought in $367 million since its launch on March 31. Combined with price appreciation, that leaves it with $406 million in total assets in six weeks, putting it ahead of every ETF except the big two.
So what drives interest in this fund? It’s hard to say for sure, but one possible explanation is that NASA is the only space-themed ETF that owns SpaceX.
The fund currently owns about 10.3% of SpaceX’s special-purpose vehicle, just behind its parent company, Rocket Lab, at 10.5%.
Otherwise the prospectus describes a mandate that is effectively controlled, at least 80% of the total assets of companies that generate half of their income or more from “locally related” activities.
Aside from SpaceX, the holdings look similar across the board, with Planet Labs, Precision Machinery, Firefly Aerospace, and others in the portfolio.
The expense ratio is 0.87%, the third highest in the group and the highest among non-yielding products.
That said, SpaceX’s exposure may not be the only reason investors are drawn to NASA. It was an obvious draw, but the performance was strong as well. Since its inception, NASA has increased by 37%, ahead of UFO by 26%, ROKT by 20%, and ARKX by 19% during the same period.
Interestingly, however, SpaceX does not appear to be the driver of that performance beyond that.
NASA launched at the end of March, shortly after SpaceX announced its merger with xAI for a combined value of $1.25 trillion, and as headlines began to report that the company may be looking at a $2 trillion valuation in its IPO later this year.
Tema notes that NASA’s SPV shares are managed at transaction costs rather than marked daily, so the value of the position only moves when the fund buys or sells. As of May 13, NASA owns 82,385 shares worth about $53.6 million, which means SpaceX’s market cap is about $1.54 trillion.
So SpaceX’s handling, mark-to-cost as it is, is not an overpowered engine. Major donors are from other places. Filtronic, NASA’s fourth-largest UK-listed name, is up 118% since the end of March. No other space ETF owns it, and it alone added nearly five percentage points to NASA’s return.
The fund also benefited from the valuation of relevant stocks. Rocket Lab is the leader and contributed about 650 points to the operation this year; NASA holds 10.5% of its portfolio in stocks compared to 6.7% for UFO. Intuitive Machines is a similar story, adding about 345 points to the ETF’s return, with a weight of 6% compared to 4% for UFO.
So the irony is that while SpaceX may be what draws investors to the ETF, the real outperformance comes from concentrated bets on hard-working publicly traded space names.
